Those who love Edward Gorey’s Gashlycrumb Tinies or Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales for Children will adore Jim Westergard’s darkly comic portraits. He illustrates each nursery rhyme twice. First, we meet the young and not-so-innocent heroes of the poems. Then we see them in their retirement, in a rogue’s gallery of unrepentant outcasts, crones and sociopaths.
Looking for a place to lay blame for all the violence and cruelty in the world today? Lay it at the feet of Mother Goose. A close look at Mother Goose’s nursery rhymes reveals cruelty, violence and bizarre behaviour. Now consider that some, or even most, of the characters in the Mother Goose nursery rhymes were modelled on real people and you’ve got the beginnings of Mother Goose Eggs, sunnyside up.
Mother Goose laid some juicy goose eggs, sunnyside up, around the nursery. The rhymes we knew as children were also read aloud to our great, great, great grandparents and, in their day, the stories were intended to prepare them for survival in a world much tougher than our own.
Jim Westergard has selected some of the more violent, cruel and unusual nursery rhymes from Mother Goose and has imagined the characters as real people. As he offers the rhymes, often with additional verses never heard before, the artist presents his portrait of the younger participant in the rhyme. Then we’re confronted, on the opposing page, with the same character depicted much later in a life that has typically not been kind, together with Jim’s commentary on their plight.